Bookstores!

I love going to the bookstore. I would grab all the magazines I was curious about but never thought I'd buy and grab a corner to flip through them...until I started buying them and bringing them home. Now, I do it the cheaper way... I subscribe to all the magazines I never thought I'd buy. Anyhow, I always have a certain amount of guilt associated with the bookstore of late. I borrow my books from the library... and have been for the past few years... yes... even prior to the recession. It turns out that I had limited space and realized that I bought books but read them only once and dusted them once in a while. So it turns out, I have lots of stuff to dust. That didn't seem to make sense to me...so I stopped buying and started borrowing. Then my magazine subscription list increased and so when I felt the urge to go to the bookstore I always felt as though I could be home reading a magazine or doing something else with something I already owned or borrowed from the library. I stopped going to the bookstore.

Last week, I decided to take my office hours back to the bookstore. There were books there, people and I didn't have to shush. I went to Barnes and Noble. It just wasn't the same... I was thoroughly disappointed. It seems as though since more people are jobless, they started hanging out at the bookstore and so the bookstore decided to make it less comfortable and removed tables and chairs, covered outlets and just stopped being as accommodating. So this week we decided to check out Borders for office hours. They didn't scale back as much... but the vibe is very different... AND the bookstore seems more sparse. It used to be chock full of books...plus new items coming in and clearance items going out. Not so vibrant these days, perhaps people have given up reading for other hobbies... or just given up the bookstores for the library.

My next search is for a coffee shop. I don't even drink coffee but I'm looking for my own Central Perk.

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Peas and Carrots.

I'm not a huge fan of peas, especially the kind that go with carrots. But, nothing else describes the feeling aside from that quote from Forrest Gump "me and Jenny was like peas and carrots again". Only I'm not Forrest and she's not Jenny.

I had my "talk" with my friend and I must say that it went well. We slipped right back into the ease of friendship as if nothing happened. Only something did. I explained to her that as easily or difficult as it was for me to reach out to her I wished that she would have done the same. Somehow it would give me more validity... I think. However, I guess I should just go with the flow and give up on the negative.

This friendship has allowed me to see that sometimes, things just happen for a reason. All in it's own time. We're both at a place where we need motivation and a constant cheerleader. I'm cheering her on... and so is she. So for now, it's working out. I'm going to go with it, learn from it and grow.

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